Due to coronavirus, our stock is running late. However we don't want to loose sales from lack of stock, so we were wondering if its possible to upload incoming stock onto shopify, then we can add a note on the website that says this wont ship until May for example. Is this a capability of shopify?

I'm wondering if an announcement bar app could work for you hear. This would allow you to display this important message during this time on your website which is very clear for all of your customers in a way that looks well and part of your overall branding. There are a few different types of announcement bar apps which could be worth your while looking into the Shopify App Store. Let's take a look at some of the most popular ones below:

Do you feel this is something that could work for you on this? Let me know!

All the best, Nick

Nick | Community Moderator @ Shopify - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Nick | Community Moderator @ Shopify - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

In terms of actually getting the stock on shopify, do I have to manually add it in in the products/inventory incoming stock? And if there is current stock and incoming stock, will shopify always fulfil orders from stock first and then go to incoming stock when current stock is all gone?

With regards to adding the inventory, it is manual yes. The reason for this is that Shopify doesn't get involved in the day to day aspect of businesses and would not know your stock/inventory.

Can I ask what you mean by:

And if there is current stock and incoming stock, will shopify always fulfil orders from stock first and then go to incoming stock when current stock is all gone?

Do you mean incoming and fulfilling stock for one product here or different ones? I'm not 100% sure what you mean here. Shopify also has some very helpful guides which might add some valuable insight for you here. There are also a lot of inventory apps from the Shopify App Store which would have additional features and some might even have automatic aspects to them. You can see the list of inventory apps here.

Nick | Community Moderator @ Shopify - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

In the inventory section of shopify there is 'incoming' and 'live'. If we enter the units we have in the incoming section will they show up on the website as incoming? or do we need to set the incoming stock as live stock and then use the announcement bar to let the customer know the stock Is incoming not live?

I spoke to our higher-level technical support team. They mentioned that the "incoming" section is to do with inventory transfers and would not show up as live on the website. Only the "Live" numbers would. There is a guide from Shopify going into more detail on this which you can see here.

Nick | Community Moderator @ Shopify - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog